Father, we thank you that you speak to us in
your word. We ask, Father, that this morning
you would help us to see how awesome, how wonderful,
how beautiful your grace is. And we ask this
in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Well, Greg
and Jasmine both go to the same church. It's
a nice little church. And at church, they sing
songs like we do. And on one Sunday, they decide
that they're singing Amazing Grace, that wonderful
hymn. And as Greg sings, he stands there and
he gets tingles on the back of his neck. Oh,
yes. Grace is amazing. Praise God. He's just
so overjoyed. But as Jasmine sings... She feels
numb. I wish Grace felt amazing again. And her
mind starts to wonder, what's for lunch? She
just drifts off. Now how did the same song elicit
such different responses? What made each of them
react so differently? Well, for Greg, he became
a Christian six months ago. His decision to follow
Jesus was unlike any other. He goes, it's the
best decision I've ever made. He has received
a profoundly deep joy, confidence and enthusiasm
since he started trusting in God's grace. He's
been blown away by it. I mean, he feels like
he won the lottery. He's got the same energy
as those people who are in Toyota ads. you know,
oh what a feeling, like that Jesus died for his
wrongs, that God loves him even when he didn't
deserve it, that he's got a new family in his
church of believers, a new hope that one day
he'll have life forever. Greg is so thankful
and it drives everything he does. He wants to
become more and more loving. He's regular at
church. He's joined a growth group. He wants
to learn everything he can about God's grace.
He serves at church and he tells people at his
workplace about Jesus because he wants everybody
to know about God's grace. It's so good. But
Jasmine's been a Christian for 20 years now.
And she used to feel like Greg. But lately God's
grace has lost its glossiness, its shine. It
feels kind of dull and boring. I mean, she knows
a lot about God's grace and she could probably
explain it to you better than Greg can. But right
now for Jasmine, life is really hard. Her marriage
is tense. Her kids are challenging. Money's really
tight at the moment. and right now work is a
nightmare. She's got that co -worker who just
keeps stabbing her in the back and she's trying
not to stab back. She doesn't tell her friends
at work about God's grace because she just doesn't
know what to say anymore and doesn't have the
enthusiasm to want to. She'd rather just keep
her head down and get through the day. Actually
for Jasmine she's starting to envy her friends.
One of her friends just got divorced and she's
doing the whole eat pray love adventure thing
and She thinks yeah, I want that I want that
freedom grace It just feels blah What good is
it? It doesn't help with my problems. What has
God's grace done for me lately? Now this morning
I want to ask What do you do if grace stops feeling
amazing? What do you do if grace starts to feel
more and more dull? Well, I think our passage
today shows us what we do and reminds us how
incredible God's grace is. Here's the big thing
I hope you take away from today. Grace feels
amazing when you stop to appreciate its beauty.
Grace feels amazing when you stop to appreciate
its beauty. And here's what I'm praying will
happen for each of you today. If you're here
today and you're a Christian, I hope you'll be
reminded of why God's grace is so amazing. I
hope you walk out that door overjoyed because
you've seen how good God's grace is. If you're
a Christian, but you're in a deep rut like Jasmine,
and you might have similar struggles to her or
different ones, I hope today you'll walk out
that door and you'll feel rich delight around
God's grace again. I hope that this passage will
pull you out of that rut. And if you're not yet
a Christian, I hope you, just like Greg, will
see how incredibly wonderful God's grace is so
that you can embrace it and take hold of it for
yourself. So grace feels amazing when you stop
to appreciate its beauty. But what's so amazing
and beautiful about God's grace? Well, there's
three things we need to see from our passage.
We were hopelessly lost. God met our every need
and all of this was undeserved. So let's look
at the first one. We were hopelessly lost. Here's
the thing about the good news of grace. It won't
feel good if we don't see how bad the bad news
of sin really is. Grace won't feel amazing if
we don't see how lost we truly were. How bad
were things for us? We'll have a look at verses
one to three. It's very bleak, but it's something
we need to hear. It starts with, as for you,
You were dead in your transgressions and sins
in which you used to live when you followed the
ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom
of the air, the spirit who is now at work in
those who are disobedient. All of us also lived
among them at one time, gratifying the cravings
of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of
wrath. It's bleak. We were dead in our sins.
What's that saying? We were spiritually dead.
We couldn't do anything. We were completely powerless
to save ourselves. I don't know if you've got
any renovations that need doing around the house.
If you do, you call a handyman, don't you? Or
you fix it yourself. The one thing you don't
do is you don't go to the cemetery. You don't
go to the cemetery and go, oh, well, I'll ask
one of the dead people there to fix some things
up at home for me. I mean, corpses, have you
ever thought about, they can't even bury themselves,
can they? They're very unhelpful. And that's
what this passage is driving home to us. We were
spiritually dead. We can't do anything. We can't
even lift a finger to help ourselves and save
ourselves. But not only that, in verse two and
three, we see that we were slave to Satan's rule.
Did you see it there? We used to live when we
followed the ways of the world and the rule of
the kingdom of the air, the spirit who's now
at work in those who are disobedient. All of
us also lived among them at one time, gratifying
the cravings of our flesh. Do you know, what's
it mean to be demonic? Does it mean that you
sit there with a Ouija board and pentagrams?
I mean, that's one way. But this passage is saying
to us, if you are demonic, you're someone who,
you could be someone who works hard in a white
collar job, you love your wife and kids, you
kiss your wife goodbye as you go off to work,
you do very well in your job, you act fairly
kindly and nicely to people and honest. and you
drive home and you don't road rage on the road,
but you live your life ignoring God. That's satanic.
You do what you want. It might even be fairly
aligned with some Christian values, but you do
what you want following your desires, your sinful
desires. You're actually under Satan's rule.
And because we're all like this, we are justly
facing a collision course with God's wrath. Do
you see it in verse three? We're following its
desires and thoughts like the rest we were by
nature deserving of wrath. Because we've spent
our lives ignoring God, we've taken the crown
off God's head and put it on our own and said,
I'm in charge. I mean, that's a coup against
the creator of the universe. And because of that,
we're facing judgment. We're facing eternal agony.
It's awful. And Jesus doesn't mince His words.
He says it's awful. I mean, in the gospels, He
talks about how it's better to amputate a piece
of your body if it causes you to sin than to
go into judgment. I mean, in the Gospels he uses
metaphors that can barely describe how awful
this judgment will be. It's awful. In Enfield,
Connecticut in 1741, revival broke out. And it
broke out as a preacher named Jonathan Edwards
preached a sermon called, Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God. It's a famous sermon. It's got
a vivid description in it that humans, sinners,
that we're like spiders dangling from a flimsy
web and God is like a man who picks up that web
wanting to rid his house of such creatures and
he picks up the web and he carries the spider
over to the fire. We had a mouse in our toilet
the other day so I can kind of resonate with
that. You don't want stuff like that in your
house. But then Edwards makes us feel the weight
of our situation by describing it like this.
Here's what he says. Again, these are hard words,
but they're what we need to hear. He says, Oh
sinner, consider the fearful danger you are in.
It is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless
pit, full of the fire of wrath that you were
held over in the hand of that God whose wrath
is provoked and incensed as much against you
as against many of the damned in hell. You hang
by a slender thread with the flames of derriere
and wrath flashing about it and ready every moment
to singe it and burn it asunder and you have
no interest in any mediator and nothing to lay
hold of to save yourself. Nothing to keep off
the flames of wrath. Nothing of your own. Nothing
that you have ever done. Nothing that you can
do to induce God to spare you one moment. And
then he goes on. You think that's heavy enough.
Look at this. He says, Your wickedness makes
you, as it were, heavy as lead, and to tend downwards
with great weight and pressure towards hell.
And if God should let you go, you would immediately
sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the
bottomless gulf. And your healthy constitution
and your own care and prudence and your best
contravance and all your righteousness would
have no more influence to uphold you and keep
you out of hell than a spider's web would have
to stop a falling rock. It's intense, isn't it?
It's hard to hear, but it's what we need to hear.
All of us are in that boat. We're all in the
same boat. If you grew up going to church, If
you're kinder and more moral than most of your
friends, if you're a Jew or a Gentile, if you're
from any background, anywhere, no matter what
you've done, this is you, this is me. This is
what we're all facing because we ignore the creator
of the universe and try and run our lives without
him in it. Now, if you're hearing this and you
want to instantly write it off and go, Brendan,
that's not true, you know, stop being a fear
monger. I mean, consider this. Have you thought
through the implications? If hell is not true,
there's no grand justice or purpose in the universe,
is it? I want to ask you, what's the alternative?
Or consider that we're sinners. I mean, every,
we're people, we know we're We all have a dark
side. One of the things I love that I think is
unique to Christianity is how raw and real Christianity
is about our dark side. If you're sitting there
and you're going, no, Brendan, I don't want to
hear this stuff. You're a fear mongerer. Please
don't just write me off. Don't just ghost me.
Come and do coffee with me. Let's talk this stuff
through. It's important. But if you're here today
and you're a Christian, I've got something for
you too. Grace won't feel amazing if you can't
see how lost you were. It just won't. And it's
so important that we regularly remember what
we were facing. Play it out in your head now
and again. Okay. If God's grace had never interrupted
my life, what would have happened to me? I would
have kept going in my sin and one day I would
have stood there before Him with no argument,
no plea, and I would have been condemned forever.
I was following Satan like he was the Pied Piper.
I was following him to hell, to pain that I could
never imagine. And as you remember that, pray.
Father, help me to see where sin was taking me.
Help me to see how amazing Your grace is that
it saved me from all of that. That will make
grace feel amazing again. But that's not all
we need to see. We've seen the bad news, but
here's the good news. We were hopelessly lost,
but... God met every need. Every need. Think
of a Swiss Army knife. What's the deal with a
Swiss Army knife? Great gift for Father's Day,
if anyone at home is thinking that. It's got
a blade, it's got scissors, it's a bottle opener,
it's got all the gadgets in it, doesn't it? It's
like the knife is trying to meet your every need
for every possible situation, isn't it? And God's
grace is like that. It's a spiritual Swiss army
knife. It meets your every need, no matter who
you are or what you've done. Come with me to
verse four. But, I had a preacher friend of mine
who every time he preached this, he'd always
say, I like big butts and I cannot lie. This
is the best butt, isn't it? But because of His
great love for us, God who is rich in mercy,
God has done something. When we couldn't do anything,
God took the initiative. He stepped in. He did
something. Because He loved us. And what did
He do? He made us alive with Christ, even when
we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace
you have been saved. and God raised us up with
Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly
realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming
ages he might show the incomparable riches of
his grace express in his kindness to us in Christ
Jesus. Now, did you spot the connections that
these verses had with the previous three verses
that we looked at? See, we had all these needs.
We were hopelessly lost but God has met our every
need. So here's what they were. We were dead
in our sins and what did God do? He made us alive
with Christ. We were following the ruler of the
air. We were slaves to Satan's lies but now we're
seated in the heavenly realms. Why seated? Well
because when you're sitting on a throne that's
what you do isn't it? Jesus is sitting on the
throne. And you sit down when you're done, don't
you? Well, Jesus has done His work. He died on
the cross to save us. It's done. It's paid for.
That's why He's seated in the heavenly realms.
And then we were deserving of wrath. We were
on a collision course with God's wrath. That's
what we were facing. God's judgment. But now
we look forward to incomparable riches. Riches
so good that they don't compare with anything.
that we have in this world. God has been unimaginably
kind and generous to us. He's provided for our
every spiritual need. And He did it by uniting
us to Christ. What happened to Jesus happens
to us. We were dead, but we've had a spiritual
resurrection. We're made alive. We were under
Satan's rule. Now we're seated with just like
Jesus is spiritually and when Jesus experienced
wrath for us, but he's going to experience incomparable
riches on that day of judgment and so are we.
God saved us when we couldn't save ourselves
because he united us to Christ. When we lived
in Geraldton years ago, we were a couple of hours
from Kalbarri National Park, an amazing national
park. But now and again, you'd hear of people
getting lost out there. Some would even die.
And it was wonderful when you'd hear the good
news that someone who was lost had been rescued.
Here's what it looks like. It's a beautiful place.
In 2017, I remember reading about two women who
got lost out there without food or water. And
emergency services found them the next day. They
were cold, but they were found. They had the
police helicopter scanning over, looking for
them. And what do you think they did when they
found them? Do you think they just put them in
the helicopter and took them back? No. I bet
they were cold, so they would have put a blanket
on them. They would have been thirsty and hungry,
so they would have given them a bottle of water
and a snack. They would have done everything
to meet a whole range of their needs. Because
that's what good rescuers do, don't they? And
it's the same with God's rescue by grace. It's
not just that Jesus bore our punishment and took
our sins on himself and took God's wrath on himself
It's that he made us alive. It's that he raised
us up. It's that he gives us future riches You
know grace stops feeling amazing when you lose
sight of what you have Our gaze can get so focused
on pain and problems we have now that we forget
to stop and smell the spiritual roses once in
a while. We've got to be good, like consistent
and solid at looking at how much God has given
us. Consider the cost of the cross and consider
all the wonderful benefits that the cross has
brought you. Think about how different your life
is now. How wonderful eternity will be because
of what Jesus has done. And do that every week.
Actually, not even every week, every day. We
should gaze at what we have and thank God for
it. Let me ask you, when will you do that in
your day? Have you got a set time? that you try
and go, yes, I'm just gonna spend, even if it's
five minutes, I'm just gonna spend time thinking
about God's grace and how much I have because
of it. Maybe you wanna put it in your calendar
now, I don't know. But there's one more aspect
to grace that we need to see if we're gonna see
and feel how amazing it is. And here's the last
one. God met our every need. after we were hopelessly
lost. But here's the thing, all of this was undeserved.
All of it was undeserved. Come with me to verse
eight. For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith. And this is not from yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not by works, not by your
performance, so that no one can boast. For we
are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to
do good works which God prepared in advance for
us to do So your salvation if you're here and
you're a Christian and you're saved do you know
who to blame? It's God's fault It's not your
own doing that includes the salvation the grace
the faith all of it It's God's fault that you're
saved He gets all the credit for saving you You
didn't earn it. Even the good works you do now
as a response to God's grace. That's what Christians
should do. We should respond to God's grace and
go, thank you God, I want to please you now by
doing good works. But even that, it's not something
you earn. It's not that you somehow earn God's
grace. No, no, that's God's workmanship. You
know, God's whittled you into something more
and more looking like Jesus because His grace
saved you. We have nothing to brag in or boast
about. Well, actually, that's not true, is it?
There's one thing we have to brag in and boast
about, God's incredible grace. Our best efforts
do nothing, but what a God we have. Salvation
is completely from Him. I don't know if you heard
about it, but a week ago in California, there
were conditions out at the beach that were just
incredibly rough. 10 -foot waves, strong rips,
and people still went to the beach, of course.
But there was a 10 -year -old boy out there who
got knocked over by one of the waves, hit his
head on the sand, and he got knocked out and
swept out to sea. And there was a young rookie
lifeguard who was only 16 who saw this happen,
a guy named Ryder Williams. And he swam out and
saved this 10 -year -old boy. Now the 10 -year
-old boy did nothing, did he? He was a goner
if it weren't for Ryder. It was someone else
doing it. It was Ryder willing to put himself
in harm's way, giving of himself that saved this
little boy. And it's the same for us. God's grace
is all his generosity. It's all unearned. It's
a gift. It's kindness that cost him. The only
thing we contribute to our salvation is our sin.
Now, where does this need to land for us? That
God's grace is undeserved? Well, grace won't
feel amazing if we believe we're entitled to
it. Grace won't feel amazing if you believe you're
entitled to it. One of the reasons Christians
should daily confess their sins to God is doing
so keeps you humble. It reminds you that You
didn't get what you deserved. You got better
than that. You got mercy and grace. When we stop
and pause and pray and realise how many sins
we've done, how even how good works are so tainted
by selfish motivations. And then we see that
God has forgiven us and loved us and treated
us way better than we possibly deserved. It moves
us to gratitude and appreciation, doesn't it?
God gets the credit for my salvation. He loved
me when I didn't deserve it. And I need to keep
seeing how undeserved His love truly is. All
right, let's wrap up. We started by asking, What
should we do when grace stops feeling amazing?
And the answer we saw was this. Grace feels amazing
when you stop to appreciate its beauty. Grace
feels amazing when you stop to appreciate its
beauty. And we looked at three aspects to the
beauty of God's grace. We were hopelessly lost,
but God met our every need. And all of this was
undeserved. Okay, but how should this affect
us? Well, that depends on who you are. Some of
us here are like Greg prior to his conversion.
You remember Greg at the start? If you're like
Greg prior to his conversion, you haven't yet
received an experience God's forgiveness, love
and grace. And if that's you, come have a chat
with me. If you've got questions, if you're going,
Brendan, I think you're horrible and I want to
tell you how wrong you are. Okay, cool. Let's
do it over coffee. I'm even happy to do it now.
Come talk to me. I'd love to talk to you about
it. Don't put it off. Because I reckon this is
if you trust in God's grace, this is the best
thing that will ever happen to you. Will you
put off something that could change your life
forever? Come have a chat with me. But some of
you here today are like Greg after his conversion,
and whether you're new to Christianity and it's
all recent and you're going, wow, this is amazing,
or maybe you're an old hand and you've been a
Christian for a long time, but you're still joyful
and blown away by God's grace. If that's you,
keep plumbing the depths of God's grace. Keep
going. It's inexhaustible. You could spend eternity
mining into God's grace and you'd never reach
the bottom. Don't stop. The more you dig, the
better it gets. And it's so important that you
do. Because you know what drives everything in
the Christian life? God's grace. What makes a
Christian praise God authentically and gladly?
God's grace. What makes a Christian joyfully
obey God's will? God's grace. They're thankful
for it. What makes a Christian share the gospel
with their co -workers and with their friends?
You know, I want you to know about Jesus. I'm
going to tell you, even if it's awkward, what
makes them do that is... They see how great God's
grace is. Grace will strengthen, satisfy, and
drive you. But we need to keep digging into it
for that to happen. But some of us here are like
Jasmine. We've stopped appreciating the beauty
and the wonder of God's grace, even though we
are Christians. And in part it's because life
is hard and we're tired and frustrated and maybe
we're hurting about some things going on in our
life. But the main culprit, if I'm honest, is
that familiarity has bred contempt. We've taken
grace for granted. Now what's the solution then?
If familiarity breeds contempt, should I just
not be familiar with God's grace? No. The solution
is to be curious and appreciative of God's grace.
It's getting more familiar with God's grace,
but in a positive way, with fresh eyes trying
to see it again and again. How do you do that?
Well, I've tried to show you a bit of that today.
You've got to remember what you were, what you
were facing. Remember and see what you have and
also see what it is that you deserve. And try
and picture and imagine those things. You know,
God's given us a wonderful gift of imagination.
Try and think of illustrations and pictures that
just help you take to heart God's grace. Maybe
read Ephesians 2, 1 to 10 again and again. Just
do it for a week. You don't have to, you know,
okay, well I've read Ephesians 2, 1 to 10 today
and now I'm going to go to Ephesians 2, 11. No,
you... You can read the same passage again and
again so it sinks in. Read it slowly, read it
carefully, read it prayerfully. Get regular praying
to see the beauty of God's grace. Ask God that
you'd see more of it. Thank God regularly for
it. Confess your sins to God and give him great
praise for his forgiveness. And if you're still
struggling, tell a friend, tell a Christian friend,
tell your growth group leader, come talk to me.
But find ways to see grace again with fresh eyes.
One of my favourites, and I've shared it before,
is that beautiful book by Tony Reinke, Newton
on the Christian Life. I love it, it's a good
one. And I know there's some of you here today
who've started reading it and are loving it too.
But don't let yourself stay in a place where
grace feels meh. Take the time to marvel at it,
to savour it, because nothing is more amazing,
precious, sweet or beautiful. Know it and treasure
it until your heart sings joyfully again. And
seek to do this all the days of your life until
you breathe your last breath. I'll close with
this. John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, is
an incredible man with an incredible story. He
was a captain of a slave trading ship. Just like
Stephen talked about, he was dealing with human
trafficking. And John Newton did some appalling
evil things. Things that you'd think were unforgivable.
But in a storm one night, he cried out to God,
which was just the most unbelievable and amazing
thing that someone like him would. And God's
grace saved him. He started reading the Bible.
He started seeing how loved he was by Jesus.
And it transformed his life. So much so that
he wrote not just amazing grace, but so many
other incredible hymns. He became a pastor. He
started working in the abolishment of the slave
trade. He did some amazing things. But at the
heart of it all was that he spent his whole life
remembering and clinging to God's grace. When
he was asked what he could still remember is
his mind started to fade. His last words were,
These two things I still remember. I am a great
sinner, but Christ is a great Saviour. I want
to cherish grace so much till the day I die that
I can say those same words too. I hope you will
too. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
so much for your grace. And we ask, Father, please
help us to see its beauty, to see its wonder.
Give us soft hearts that would receive it, cherish
it, and love it. And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.